Nearly half of self employed workers turned to more than one income in 2023

Self employed workers are turning to more than one source of income, as predictions for the year ahead see income stagnate or decrease.

A survey of over 500 self employed workers by GoSimpleTax found that more than half (51%) turn to two or more sources of income. Surveying self employed workers across several industries including architecture and engineering, arts and culture, education, finance, healthcare, legal, IT and telecoms and HR, found that the self employed community have found the past twelve months difficult and expect earnings to stay the same (28%) or decrease (29%) in 2024.

Reflecting on the past year, self employed workers cited unpredictability of work (56%), no sick pay or benefits (56%) and managing accounts (17%) as some of the most pressing issues affecting their work, and also highlighted downsides to their work including budgeting (14%) and loneliness (10%).

Yet on the other hand, flexibility (70%) and owning their own schedule (65%) were called out as two of the perks of being self employed as well as earning more (14%), ability to travel (8%) and paying less tax (6%).

Looking forward into 2024 and beyond, self employed workers are weighing up their options. Whilst 67% say they plan to stay self employed long term, one in five (20%) say they are staying self employed for now but will change in future. A further 7% are keen to change their status to being employed.

The survey also discovered that 58% don’t know how much their next tax bill will be or have money set aside to pay for it. Almost a third (32%) say they have ‘some idea’ but more than a quarter (27%) will wait until they complete their return to find the money to pay it.

Discussing the results of the survey, Mike Parkes, Technical Director at GoSimpleTax, said: “After a turbulent year and with the forecast for tax and the UK rate of inflation still high, it’s no wonder many of the country’s self employed are finding business tough and that it’s been a struggle over the past twelve months.

“Yet whilst there are concerns for the self employed community, it’s still holding strong with 4.24 million self employed still actively working and contributing to the UK economy. Whilst there are downsides to self employment, there are positives too and taking control of their workload and their finances were highlighted as perks.”

They continued: “Having control of their own finances, including paying tax and budgeting, are two of the sides of self employed life that can often be time consuming and draining but they don’t have to be. Getting ready for the January 31st deadline can mean taking the headache out of paying tax and help it seem less of a drain on your finances too.”